HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong theme park is to shut its
aviaries for three weeks following the discovery of a wild
heron suspected of dying from bird flu.

The bird was found on Monday in a remote area of Ocean
Park, on the south coast of Hong Kong Island.

"As a precautionary measure, the walk-in aviaries in Ocean
Park will be temporarily closed to visitors for 21 days
starting tomorrow," said a spokesperson with Hong Kong's
Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.

Ocean Park, a conservation-focused theme park with pandas,
dolphins, birds and rollercoasters, attracted nearly 5 million
visitors last year, proving more popular than the struggling
Hong Kong Disneyland.

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Spokeswoman Christine Lau said the rest of the park would
operate normally and the aviary closures were a precautionary
measure, with the 900 birds in its collection not having shown
any symptoms of bird flu.

Epidemiologists fear the H5N1 strain, which remains mainly
an animal disease but has infected humans, could mutate to a
form that spreads easily among people.

China detected an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1
strain of bird flu in poultry in Tibet earlier this week.